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Irreproachable Gauntlet of the Unconquered Sun
Category:LDDD Panoply =Irreproachable Gauntlet of the Unconquered Sun= (Artifact 4 Reinforced Breastplate) Owned by: Ceril Tesus Soak: +10L/9B Hardness 8L/8B Mobility -1 Fatigue 1 Cost: Artifact 4 Attune: 6 motes Hearthstone Slots: 1 The Irreproachable Gauntlet of the Unconquered Sun was the property of an elder Zenith-caste Solar Exalted, a survivor of the Primordial wars. It's original owner, an ideologue, made it his mission upon Creation to spread the word of the Unconquered Sun, to denounce falsehoods and heresies, to blisteringly castigate those fools who worshiped the Yozis, and to cast down and pronounce judgment on those who spread lies and deceit. In time, he became known simply as The Truth, casting aside all other titles and names. He watched and became disgusted with the excesses of his fellows, railing at the debaucheries, the callousness, the cruelty. This was not the purpose of the Sun's Chosen. Although hardly without flaw of his own, his unwavering dedication to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth had kept him from the destructive excesses of his own virtues. In time, he experienced a vision from the Unconquered Sun; a vision of himself, girded in golden truth as bright as the Sun's rays, obvious and evident to all who beheld it, beyond reproach and undeniable; castigating his fellows for abandoning their purposes, forcing them to look inside themselves and see the rotted corruption within, to fight against it. He climbed to the top of a mountain, hewing the top off with a blow of his blade, and there constructed a forge. Crude though his environs were, the Zenith's hammer struck as true as his blade, guided by his vision. His hammer fell and metal rang, for months on end, day and night, without pause for rest or food but once a fortnight, in sunshine and cold, in rain and whipping wind, sustained by faith and drive. Upon donning the armor for the first time, The Truth was given another vision of the Unconquered Sun; addressed directly, he was told that through times of turmoil and terror, he had refused to waver from his destiny as one of the Unconquered Sun's fists; open, just and fair at all times, closing for the attack only when the unrepentant defied the will of the Sun. The vision told him of a place far away, where the Chosen of the Sun were gathering for a feast, a perfect place to castigate them for the error of their ways. He set out at once, naming the armor the Irreproachable Gauntlet of the Unconquered Sun (as he was a fist; his armor was the gauntlet,) stopping along the way only long enough to preach the glory and status of the Unconquered Sun, self-evident and beyond question, at all places where people dwelled, large and small. When he arrived at the banquet, he found that he was late. Too late. An army besieged his fellows; he joined in, battering aside the Terrestrial Exalted, castigating them with word and sword alike; many fell before his Daiklaive, but many more fell away from the battle, ashamed, convinced of the wrongness of their actions in the face of the glowing titan of a man, preaching amidst the bloodshed, of the rightness of the Unconquered Sun, and the proper station of the Exalted as the protectors of Creation, not the destroyers thereof. Ultimately he was slain in the battle, though not by the hands of the Terrestrials; he was confronted by ten of the Chosen of the Maiden of Battles, who, witnessing his deeds, realized that while no one Solar could undo what they had set in motion, one Solar who could convince their pawns to turn back to the cause of the Chosen of the Sun could be their undoing, and so they attacked him directly. He spoke to them, even as their blades met, and though his words were true, and even the Sidereal Exalted could deny them not, they fell on ears committed to their path, their hearts hardened and set upon the Path of Bronze. Though the battle was fierce, and he slew many of them, he called out for aid towards the end, and two dozen Terrestrial Warriors renounced their allegiance to the Usurpation. Just as the deathblow fell upon The Truth, the Terrestrials fell upon the Maidens' Chosen, slaying them, in turn. Those two dozen knew then that they must repent for their actions; they took the Truth's armor and sword, scattering themselves with them; amongst their number was an experienced occultist and geomancer, who knew of the nature of Manses, including some which were forbidden; in possession of the armor, he hid it within a Manse he knew to be Outside Fate, hiding it's location forever from the eyes of the Sidereal Exalted, and took his own life to prevent it's location from being tortured out of him. In time, the armor would be forgotten of entirely, but ever it laid there, waiting to be claimed. The powers of the Irreproachable Gauntlet are simple, yet potent. When the wearer speaks a truth that she knows to be the truth, all who behold the wearer and hear the proclamation know it to be the full truth, the whole truth, and are unable to deny said truths. Likewise, when the wearer denounces as false something he knows to be false, those who witness the proclamation understand the subject of the falsehoods to be lies. However, the Gauntlet compels nothing; it can, of course, be an extremely valuable, potent effect, but it alone compels no action on the part of those witnessing it's truths. Being utterly convinced of the right station of the Unconquered Sun does not compel those who are so convinced to begin worshiping him; nor does being convinced of the wrongness of one's action necessarily compel one to cease. During his final battle, The Truth spoke honestly about the rightful station of the Solar Exalted, and the wrongness of the rebellion, yet the Chosen of the Maidens struck him down anyway; though they knew what they were doing was wrong, they felt it was better to commit a great wrong than to risk Creation being destroyed. Upon highly subjective matters, the Irreproachable Gauntlet is mute; it cannot convince someone whose favorite color is red that blue is a superior color, it cannot convince warring generals that they should abandon war, even if it can convince them that war is an inappropriate course of action under the circumstances (provided it is). The more ambiguous the matter being discussed is, the less useful the armor is. It might, for example, be able to convince an adherent of a faith that the wearer knows to have been founded on false premises that his faith is false, but that does not automatically mean he renounces it; it may force him to go on a soul-searching quest, and may serve as a starting point to a social attack to the ends of breaking a man's loyalty, but in and of itself, it will not. Furthermore, the armor rebels if the wearer attempts to speak falsehoods whilst attuned to it. If the wearer knowingly attempts to lie, it imposes a -5 internal penalty on his related dice rolls, and if the lie is successful, the armor's truth effects cease to work for that Exalt until they repent in suitably dramatic fashion. The armor does not compel an answer, however; the wearer can refuse to answer a direct question, and it will tolerate omission. Likewise, it will not hinder the wearer from concealing their identity by means of disguise, though it will not tolerate the provision of a false name.